Work Text:
Taeil hummed to himself as finished the last of his painting. It had been a while since he’d gotten time to spend hours on a painting without any interruptions. He let out a satisfied sigh as he placed his painting to the side to let it dry and took out his phone as he finally made his way out of his art studio. He had been there since Jaehyun left to meet his friends around 9:00 in the morning and it was oh. No wonder he felt hungry, forgetting to eat lunch had that effect.
Taeil shook his head as he walked down the stairs, freezing when he saw the color of the sky. He had been so immersed in painting that he didn’t even realize that the sky was filled with dark, black clouds. An instant wave of panic swept through Taeil as he gulped. There was going to be a storm and he’s all alone in the house- no! Taeil gritted his teeth and shook his head. He was being stupid, there was no way the storm was going to affect him so why was he even getting scared?
Taeil huffed to himself as he tried to force the fear down and walked into the kitchen. Whatever happened outside the house did not matter since he was inside and so all Taeil was going to focus on right now was getting himself food. He took a deep breath and started rummaging through the cupboards. Taeil smiled when he found a pack of cup ramen and quickly boiled some water and poured it in before moving to grab a glass to get some soda.
All of a sudden a loud noise boomed through the house and Taeil flinched, his hold on the glass slipping as it fell to the floor and broke into pieces. Taeil gasped as he quickly moved to grab the pieces, letting out a painful hiss when another loud thunder boomed and he accidentally cut himself with one of the pieces. Fuck! He was not going to let thunder affect him, why should he?
Taeil took a few deep breaths to calm his racing heartbeat before moving to clean the rest of the pieces and take care of his cut. Taeil had barely finished dressing up his cut when another loud boom echoed and he found himself dropping down to the floor with hands over his head, eyes squeezed shut. Fuck, he clearly was not able to ignore it.
Taeil tried his best to push down the increasing panic and pulled himself up on shaky legs before walking (read: sprinting) towards the bedroom. Taeil made quick work of closing all the windows, not able to resist the urge to flinch at every small voice. He was breathing heavily, his heart racing at a hundred miles per hour as he finally finished closing the windows and curled up on the bed.
Taeil let out a yelp when another loud boom cracked and a flash of lightning came from the window. Why? Why the fuck did he have to put the curtains for washing today? Why did he not put it off for the next day? Now he was stuck here without anything to cover the goddamn windows! Taeil let out a shaky breath as he grabbed the blankets and wrapped them around him, he could definitely make it through this storm, he had to.
Barely a few minutes had passed when another loud thunder cracked across the sky and a tear slid down Taeil's cheek. He could feel himself sweating as his body refused to breathe. All he could hear was his heartbeat, fast enough to make him worry he was having a heart attack while swift tears ran down his face. Taeil felt his body tremble as he felt panic take over his body. Oh god, he shouldn't give in. He had to fight back against all these irrational thoughts and reactions. What was even there to be scared of thunder?
His ex-boyfriend always said that he was making this all up and being afraid of thunder was nothing. And Taeil knew that but he just couldn't control his body or brain. It was like he couldn't even move. His body felt so so heavy and his brain was running at a high speed spouting bad situations one after the other about how the thunder could hurt him and Taeil just wanted it all to stop.
Even more tears fell out of his eyes as sobs wracked his body and he curled up onto himself, flinching at every crack of thunder and lightning. The fact that it had started raining heavily did not help. He needed someone- no, he needed Jaehyun. He knew that Jaehyun could protect him from the thunderstorm but he wasn't here and Taeil was all alone. He just wanted the storm to go away and leave him alone. It wasn't long before he was pulled down into complete panic, struggling to get any air in his body when the front door finally opened.
***
Jaehyun had just finished eating and was planning to go shopping with his friends when he heard the first crack of thunder. He walked out of the cafe and frowned as he peered at the sky. Dark, grim clouds surrounded the sky and that just made Jaehyun want to go back home. Back to Taeil. So that was what he, he bid his goodbyes to his friends and made his way home. He just wanted to- no, needed to- see that Taeil was okay.
By the time Jaehyun made it home, the weather had worsened. He had barely gotten out of the cab and it started pouring. Even though Jaehyun had run to the front door, he failed to escape the rain and was soaked to the bone. in less than an hour but the weather conditions have worsened. Jaehyun shivered as the cold air hit him and made quick work of grabbing his key and opened the door to the house.
Jaehyun let out a relieved sigh as soon as he escaped the cold storm and stepped into the warmth of the house. He paused and frowned when he didn’t see Taeil anywhere. He jumped as a particularly loud thunder cracked and instantly set out to find Taeil.
“Taeil hyung,” Jaehyun called out as he moved through the living room and kitchen before moving towards the art studio. The older must have spent most of his alone time in his studio painting since he usually didn’t get to do that often.
Jaehyun sighed fondly as he opened the door, “I swear to god, hyung if you skipped lunch-”
Turns out Jaehyun was wrong. The room was empty save for the art supplies spread around the room indicating that Taeil had been in here at a point. Even though Jaehyun knows there’s nothing to panic about, he can’t help but feel worried. Taeil is not in the studio and it’s raining cats and dogs out there. What if Taeil went out and got stuck somewhere?
Jaehyun shook his head and forced himself to stay calm, even though his heart was beating at a hundred miles per hour. Taeil was definitely in the house, Jaehyun just had to check everywhere. Who knows the older must’ve fallen asleep somewhere?
Jaehyun didn't waste a single second as he rushed down the stairs and made quick work of checking the living room before going to the kitchen and pausing when he notices the pieces of broken glass collected on the kitchen counter. Jaehyun gritted his teeth and tried to not think of the worst-case scenarios as he rushed towards the only place left to search, their bedroom.
A sigh filled with the utmost relief leaves Jaehyun when he finds Taeil in their bedroom wrapped into a blanket and curled up on the bed, “Hey, hyung! I was searching for you-”
Jaehyun paused when Taeil finally popped his head out of the blanket. He felt his heart shatter into pieces when he realized that the older was crying. Jaehyun instantly rushed forward, not thinking much about his wet clothes as he took a seat in front of his boyfriend, concern all over his face.
“Hyung? What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Why are you crying?”
Jaehyun let out a surprised noise when Taeil suddenly left the blankets and quite literally tackled him into bed, his head buried in the younger’s neck as he let out quiet sobs, his body shivering. Jaehyun wrapped his arms around Taeil and caressed his back, trying to calm him down.
“Hyung, will you tell me why are you crying?” asked Jaehyun once Taeil’s sobs had died down, he did sniffle from time to time.
“I-I, Jae-” Taeil gulped, his eyes filling with more tears as he whispered. “-I’m scared of thunderstorms. I know it’s s-stupid but I can’t help it-”
Taeil found his words being cut off as Jaehyun wrapped him into a tight hug and shook his head, “No, hyung! Being afraid of storms is not stupid! Never say that!”
Taeil felt even more tears build-up, however, these were from how much he loved Jaehyun and nodded. He opened his mouth to speak when a loud crack of thunder echoed and he flinched hard, his heartbeat racing again.
“Sh, hyung. Don’t worry. Just take deep breaths. I’m here, I won’t let anything happen to you. Okay?” cooed Jaehyun as he maneuvered them more comfortably onto the bed.
He winced at how his clothes stuck to him but ignored it in favor of letting Taeil cuddle up into his side, his body still trembling. Jaehyun hummed softly under his breath, holding Taeil tight as the storm went on outside.
After that, it didn't take long before Taeil's breath had evened out and he had fallen asleep. Jaehyun laid there for a while to make sure the older was asleep before carefully moving him away from him and getting out. Jaehyun sighed as he saw that half of his clothes had dried. All Jaehyun hoped for as he went to take a hot shower was that Taeil wouldn't catch a cold because of him.
Little did he know it was going to be the opposite.